Holiday

The Lifesavers jelly beans are one of the flavors I looked forward to trying the most. Unlike Jolly Ranchers and SweeTarts, I’m actually a big fan of Lifesavers, ever since I’m a little kid. I ate every flavor in the roll when I was treated to one, even the green one that most people would try and trade away for another flavor. This was back in the day when the Five Flavor roll consisted of cherry, lemon, orange, pineapple and lime. Ah, those were the days.

There’s a large flavor variety of flavors in this one bag, eight to be exact. I like the fact that there’s lots to choose from, but at the same time, I feel a little overwhelmed. I think it’s funny how there’s flavors included in this mix that you can’t find in the normal Lifesavers hard candies, like the Peach. I could be mistaken though, as it’s been a bit since I last examined the rolls in the checkout lane in the supermarket.

The beans are a nice shape and are very bright and colorful. They are very glossy, and therefore I find them very attractive.

Strawberry (pink): very tart, fruity and jammy. It’s very syrupy sweet and really reads as a “pink” flavor.

Apple (green): Right away this flavor is very sour and zesty with strong apple flavors. It tastes like a tart apple cider with a slight artificial edge to it.

Peach (light orange): This flavor is very perfumey and juicy. It has an intense, and surprisingly authentic flavor.

Grape: The flavor is mild, but comes across as very rich, deep and jammy flavors. My thoughts immediately run to concord grape jelly.

Pineapple: This is like the real Lifesaver with a very authentic pineapple flavor combined with a good tartness.

Cherry: So loyal to the cherry Lifesaver, it’s incredible. Tart, fruity with a very acute fake metallic flavor.

Orange: Also very faithful to the Lifesaver candy, this is so bright and juicy. I love it! The flavor is so zesty I want to call it Tangerine as opposed to orange.

Lemon: So zesty, sweet and flavorful of juicy fresh lemons. Wowoza. This is what all lemon candy should taste like.

I really, really enjoyed these. I liked the ability to get some of my favorite Lifesavers flavors in a new texture. It’s exciting and makes me fall in love with Lifesavers and jelly beans all over again.

I was a very late bloomer in terms of my appreciation of the Cadbury Creme Eggs (or CCE’s in shorthand). My first memories of them was the ads I recall as a child of the 1980’s, featuring a white bunny that clucks like a hen, surrounded by impostor bunnies that made noises of different animals. I recall my Mom wrinkling her nose at these adds, stating that she “hated” those things, as they were too sweet. I paid little attention to her comments, like most children do with their parents. It wasn’t until college where I actually got my first taste of a CCE, and from then on, I was forever changed.

There’s many types of CCE’s on the market. There’s the original, caramel, fudge (or was it truffle?), mini, mini caramel, and most recently orange (which I reviewed for CandyAddict last year). I’ve tried them all and liked them, but I keep returning to the original as my favorite. If I had to give one second place, I’d go for the orange.

The concept of the CCE is simple. It’s a hollow milk chocolate egg with a creamy fondant center that’s white with a yellow spot in it, so it looks like an egg yolk. The egg is a good size (though it’s been shrinking over the years) and the packaging changes every year it seems. The photo above is the new update of the design for 2008.

Unwrapped, the egg is beautiful and feels heavy in your hand. You can see the seam whee the two halves come together to seal the fondant interior. The chocolate sides have a design of a eight pointed star on each side and lines that circle them.

The egg smells lightly of cocoa and cream.

The chocolate is thick and has that wonderful European flavor to it. Sweet, milky, a little tart, and a good chocolate flavor. Now I can see why my mom complained that this style of chocolate is too sweet, but I like it just fine. The center’s overall texture should be thick and flowing, like egg white can be. But the one I got here to sample was more dried out and grainy, which I found odd. The flavor is extremely sweet with hints of vanilla. The texture in the mouth is smooth with a little grain to it, and it feels cool on the tongue. It can be a little sticky, and it feel like eating frosting fresh from the bowl.

I bought a few more in search of that creamy, flowing center. I think I got it here.

What can I say, I love these things. I tend to get a small stash to last myself a little while each Easter. They’re the kind of candy I can only have so often, as if I eat too many close together I feel I need to pass out in a sugar coma. Yes, they’re that sweet and that addicting. Isn’t that a sign of a good candy? It is in my book.

I know, I know. Why am I reviewing more SweeTart candies if I’m not a fan of them? Let’s just say sometimes curiosity gets the best of me and I like to take one of the team. I noticed these by chance in one of the smaller Easter candy bins on the very bottom shelf. I was immediately drawn in by how extremely colorful they were, so into the bag they went.

I was instantly delight by them once I opened the package, for many reasons. They have a nice bouncy chew, and the sugar coating gives it a little texture that feels sandy, but not grainy. The actual form of these candies are really cute, they’re obviously bunnies and the mold for these is very pleasing. The form is recognizable without being too detailed, and the proportions are nice too. I don’t feel the bunnies are overly deformed (like gummi bears with the giant heads). The ears are the best feature. So cute! Probably one of the most adorable Easter candies I’ve encountered yet.

Pink: I can’t lay my finger on this flavor. It’s a little strawberry, a little cherry and a little watermelon. It was a little sweet, a little tart…and lot of “little"s huh? It has a nice red fruity flavor with a good sweet tarty zest to it.

Orange: Very tart orange flavor. It’s strong in the beginning, but then mellows into a light sweet flavor.

Yellow: Lemon, but very floral and soapy tasting.

Green: It tastes subtly of apple, like a nice tart cider. Mainly it’s just sweet with a tarty edge.

Blue: I expected this to taste of blue raspberry, but what a surprise to find that it tasted like a fruity Hawaiian punch! Must be the same blue punch flavor as the jelly bean from yesterday’s review. It’s got a good sour note, with flavors of apple, grape, banana and orange all mixing around. It’s lovely.

Purple: Has a very floral, grape soda like essence. The tartness and the strength of the grape flavor grows as you eat it, which I found interesting. Usually it’s the other way around. I think the tart and grape work really well together.

I liked these a lot better than the jelly bean version. The texture and cute shape certainly play a big part in that though, as opposed to the flavors winning me over. I didn’t finish the bag and ended up sharing them with friends instead.

More jelly beans! Yay! These are another variety on the market now for Easter that are based on a pre-existing candy and have taken the flavors and translated into jelly beans. The package is really attractive and even thought it uses the traditional SweeTart colors and design, it comes across still as very festive for the holiday.

The beans are about a normal size, like a chubby peanut. Right away I notice that the colors are odd. They’re pastel neon, if you can wrap your head around that, and are completely opaque. They do have the same faded “look” like the original SweetTarts. The beans are also not very shiny at all, which doesn’t make them as attractive as they could be. I’m reminded of wasabi peas when I look at the green one.

The texture of these are also pretty strange. The outer shell is crunchy and crumbly, and it dissolves almost immediately off the jelly center. It has this cool feeling to it and it melts away on the tongue.

Grape (lavendar): Very light in flavor, yet very sour. It’s dreadful, to be completely frank about it. It doesn’t taste like grape at all and it just reads as “medicinal” to me.

Cherry (pink): Flavor is very sour and tart. The taste exactly like the Flintstones Vitamins of my childhood.

Orange: Light creamy flavor that’s very mild. Think of it as a very watered down creamsicle.

Lemon: Nice and tart with a fake metallic edge to it. It tastes more like lime or bad lemonade powder to me.

Green Apple: This one is really well done. It’s not fake tasting at all to me, but very mild with fresh notes of apple and pear.

Blue Punch: Wow, a blue flavor that isn’t raspberry! It’s nicely mild, sweet and fruity. It’s very tropical and has that iconic fruit punch note to it. My favorite of the bunch.

These are great if you’re already a fan of SweeTarts, but since I’m not, I didn’t enjoy them. I wouldn’t even find them attractive in an Easter candy dish since the colors are so strange.

Edible Easter grass was something that first appeared a few years ago. When I first heard of it, I thought that it was a cool idea. I mean really, why would an extra edible something in your Easter basket be a bad idea? I obviously didn’t think about this rationally, but more like the sugar junkie that I am. Oops.

I first saw the Easter grass in Target last year. It was in a very plain, non descriptive package and came in only two flavors: cherry and green apple. Not being a fan of either, I figured that cherry was a safer bet and used my courage to take the odd looking stuff home. I don’t remember too much after that, other than I tasted it and promptly spit it out.

This year I saw the edible Easter grass again, but this time in Wal-Mart (bad sign?) by a different company and in more flavors. The package is actually very attractive, with an eggs shaped window showing the grass inside and surrounded by butterflies and bunnies. “Imported from Germany” is printed in large yellow lettering on the front, and I’m curious as to why this should have any bearing on the actual product. If it’s foreign, maybe that makes it taste better? I don’t know.

I picked up the Orange flavor since out of all the options, I thought that this would taste the best. The grass is pretty to look at, it really does look and feel like Easter grass, even though it’s a little stiff. The ingredeitns read as such:

The strands are square shaped and are about ten inches in length. They smell lightly sweet. The texture is light and airy at first, then they get sticky and gummy as you start to chew. The flavor is so very faint, with only a slight orange flavor. The main flavor is of cardboard and starch, and I’m reminded of communion wafers. So they’re pretty bland, but not putrid like the cherry kind from the year before.

As stand-along Easter grass, it works fine, but the real thing is much cheaper.